The African Energy Week Conference will host its first dedicated artificial intelligence and data centre track when it takes place in Cape Town from Oct. 12 to 16, as organizers seek to attract investment and tie Africa’s energy build-out to the demands of the digital economy.
The new track, organized by the African Energy Chamber, is designed to do more than reflect the current AI hype cycle. Its focus is on how Africa can use rising AI demand — and the power-hungry data centres behind it — to expand energy access. The thinking is that if African nations align energy expansion with AI infrastructure investment, both sectors stand to benefit.
In a press release, the African Energy Chamber argued that data centres should be positioned as anchor demand sources requiring constant, large-scale generation, attracting investors and accelerating economic expansion in regions that need it most.
“Africa has a unique opportunity to leapfrog legacy systems by aligning its energy growth with the digital economy. Data centers and AI are not just consumers of power — they are catalysts for investment, innovation and access,” said NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber. “If we structure this correctly, we are not just powering servers; we are powering economies and closing the energy access gap at scale. We will start a data center and AI revolution in Cape Town.”
African Energy Week is expected to draw around 300 ministers and senior officials and as many as 9,000 attendees from around the world. The event will feature five content stages and two technical hubs covering energy in all its forms — from oil and gas to renewables — alongside the new AI and data centre programming.
The chamber plans to use the conference to discuss policy and regulatory frameworks needed to attract investment into both AI infrastructure and the energy capacity required to support it. “The Chamber has already engaged world class companies to develop the platform, ensuring compliance and alignment with industry dynamics,” it said.
Demand for reliable, consistent power for data centres is rising sharply as AI workloads grow. While Africa currently relies heavily on compute power hosted abroad, data sovereignty laws across the continent are pushing governments to develop local capacity to run AI workloads — a complex undertaking that requires synchronized investment in both energy and digital infrastructure.
Registration and further information for the conference is available at https://aecweek.com/
